As a marketing professional, I find myself in a conundrum. I completely understand companies wanting to gather information about me in order to present a more personalized experience. Targeted ads, relevant special offers, personalized product suggestions.
But it’s scary. We live in a digital world, and identity theft and fraud are on the rise. If we don’t have our identity, what do we have? I’ve heard horror stories of people having their identities stolen and fighting for years to get it back, clean up their credit report, etc..
Recently, I read an informative article from Lifehacker about protecting your information online. It really made me think, and I proceeded to install some security plug-ins for my browser and strengthen my security settings. However, I soon ran into issues.
Sites that I commonly use (and trust), such as clients, vendors and mainstream services, were rendered ineffective. I’ve already run into multiple instances where I couldn’t even log in to these sites without enabling cookies. Also, these plug-ins seem to be really slowing down my browsing experience. So what to do? What do you do?
I did check out Lifehacker’s “The Best Replacements for Privacy-Invading Services,” along with other suggestions for bypassing some of these companies and services. But do I really want to forego Gmail and Facebook entirely? I can’t imagine removing my Facebook company page in lieu of a presence on Glassboard. Would you? Have you?
As noted, I can definitely see both points of view as a marketer and consumer. I enjoy the personalized experience and convenience that information tracking allows. However, I’m at a crossroads right now. Security or convenience & personalization? Can these two sides ever coexist?
I would love to hear your suggestions and experiences on how you live in our digital world while maintaining your privacy. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!
Stay safe,
Jaime
Image credit: cedro via Flickr
clearly conveyed communications 
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Hello, thanks for stopping by and checking out my site. I appreciate you subscribing to my feed! I blog here weekly (on Tuesdays) and also at http://jaimeshine.hubpages.com. Let me know if you have any questions about the site.
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Hi are using WordPress for your blog platform? I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and set up my own. Do you need any html coding expertise to make your own blog? Any help would be really appreciated!
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Hello, I did choose WordPress for my main website and blogging platform. You don’t need any coding knowledge or experience to use WordPress; the dashboard is very straight forward and user-friendly. You can set up your own blog at http://www.wordpress.com. Thanks for stopping by! Please check out my site, and let me know if you have any further questions.
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Thank you for stopping by the Clearly Conveyed Communications blog! We’re happy that you enjoyed this post and took the time to comment. Please stop by again; we’re looking forward to hearing from you!
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Wow, fantastic weblog format! How long have you been running a blog for?
you made blogging glance easy. The whole look of your web site is excellent, let alone the content!
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Thanks for the kind words, Antonietta! I really appreciate them. This blog and the CCC site was launched in April 2012, with one major redesign since. Thanks for stopping by and checking everything out. I hope that you continue to enjoy the content! p.s. I offer blog writing services if you ever need any help.
Cheers!
Jaime
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Joe,
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. Privacy is definitely a very important part of your online experience, and I’m happy to provide information on the subject. My goal, as always, is to spur a discussion and make people think.
Cheers,
Jaime
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Hello and thanks for stopping by! Thanks for your kind words about the design of the site. We’re currently using the Splendio theme from WordPress, which you can find via your WordPress dashboard (under Appearance –> Themes). Have a great day!
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Thanks for letting us know. We looked into this and the image for this post is loading just fine for us on desktop and mobile. Were you referring specifically to this post or other posts? Also, do you mind letting us know how you were accessing our site? Mobile/desktop? Which browsers you used? We appreciate your feedback!
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Look at the bottom of one of the notification emails you receive. It’ll say something like “Receiving too many emails? Click the link to unsubscribe from comments. It will take less than a minute, and you’ll get rid of a lot of emails. Let us know if you have any problems unsubscribing.
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Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment, Alethea. I’m happy that you and your coworkers find the content valuable. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for content.
Cheers,
Jaime
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